1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical control apparatus that controls driving section for causing a bending portion of a medical device to perform bending movements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, endoscopes are widely used as medical devices. Such an endoscope is equipped with an elongated insertion portion, and by inserting the insertion portion into a body cavity, an operator is able to observe internal organs inside the body cavity or perform various therapeutic treatment using, as required, a treatment instrument inserted through a treatment instrument channel. In addition, with an endoscope applied to industrial fields, by inserting an elongated insertion portion, a worker is able to observe and examine flaws or corrosion inside a boiler, a turbine, an engine, a chemical plant or the like.
With such an endoscope, a bendable bending portion is provided on a proximal end-side of a distal end portion of an insertion portion. When using the endoscope, a user such as an operator operates bending operation inputting section such as a bending operation lever provided at an operation section to input an instruction on a bending direction or a bending speed of a bending portion as a bending quantity to bending driving section that causes bending movements of the bending portion.
Consequently, based on the bending quantity from the bending operation lever, the bending driving section causes a bending movement of the bending portion by mechanically pulling or relaxing a bending operation wire connected to a bending piece constituting the bending portion.
This type of a conventional endoscope includes an endoscope employing an electrical bending driving system or, in other words, an electric bending endoscope in which rotational movement of a motor built into the inside of the endoscope as bending driving section is electrically controlled, whereby the driving force of the motor pulls or relaxes a bending operation wire to cause bending movements of the bending portion.
For example, disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2917263 is a technique regarding control section and the like in an electric bending endoscope, which includes a pulley that pulls the bending operation wire and which enables a torque of a motor corresponding to the pulley to be set so as to conform to the type of the insertion portion of the endoscope.
In addition, disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2845255 is a technique regarding a bending operation apparatus of an electric bending endoscope, which is capable of equalizing load applied to a motor across an entire operation range of a bending portion.